Contract Commons is a new initiative to help schools and governments get better deals from vendors and to help vendors better understand the needs of their public-institution clients. (Thanks to Brian Robinson via Tom Hoffman.) From the web site:
We intend to make it easier and more cost-effective for vendors and clients to think through relevant issues, memorialize them in cogent and legal agreements and build balanced, ongoing relationships. Contract Commons will also build a public education contracting community for procurement officials. The community will have access to various tools, including: [1] "Best of breed" technology contracts for public education, [2] Annotations to those contracts provided by top legal and technology professionals, [3] A searchable library of contract clauses, [4] A community forum to encourage debate, discussion and collaboration among procurement officials and vendors, [5] Primers on open source technology and contracts, and advice on how to integrate existing procurement practices with open solutions, [6] An expert contract drafting "wizard" to walk procurement officials through the business and legal issues necessary to consider when negotiating for technology, [7] A clearinghouse of vendor information, including information about vendor products and contract terms to create broader markets in public sector technology.
(PS: Though not directly related to OA, I'd be interested to hear from university libraries that use Contract Commons to improve their bargaining power with publishers and datababse vendors.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/21/2005 11:20:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
